The first two games of the college soccer season matched LSU against Memphis and Southern Miss — two teams that, like LSU, would seemingly consist entirely of players from the South.A player or two from the North could be feasible, but it would seem the majority of Northerners wouldn’t play for a university that far away. But that’s not the case.In the first two games alone, Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Canada were all represented by at least one player among LSU and its opponents. Sophomores Taryne Boudreau and Allysha Chapman, both natives of Canada, start for LSU. And they aren’t the first Canadians LSU coach Brian Lee has scouted since he began his tenure in Baton Rouge in December 2004.”We do a lot of scouting of the Canadian Youth National Team, and it actually started with Caroline Vanderpool,” Lee said. “In going to watch her play, we ran into Taryne and Allysha.”Vanderpool helped lead the Tigers to their most successful season in 2007-08 as a senior.Boudreau is from Sherwood Park, Alberta, while Chapman is from Courtice, Ontario — about a three-hour plane ride away, according to Chapman. Despite the distance, soccer brought the two players together before arriving at LSU.”I’ve known her since I was like 14,” Boudreau said. “We went to a national team camp together, so I’ve known her since then. I’ve played against her for many years.”But the two players who knew each other since their early teenage years took different paths in their journeys to LSU.Boudreau came straight to LSU for her freshman season after being heavily recruited by Lee.”I just got letters in the mail and a phone call from [Lee] asking me to come and telling me that he’s interested,” Boudreau said. “So I ended up coming down here.”Chapman had a lengthier voyage than Boudreau to reach LSU.Chapman made 18 appearances and 13 starts at Alabama-Birmingham as a freshman and was named to the 2007 Conference USA All-Freshman Team before transferring to LSU to team up with Boudreau.”I knew Taryne, and I knew this would be a good program, so I thought this would be a good place to transfer to,” Chapman said. “It’s kind of close to UAB.”It may seem unusual that a player from Canada would travel so far from home. But Lee said it’s not so strange in collegiate soccer.”The best Canadian team players want to play in U.S. colleges in general,” Lee said. “Our intercollegiate system is so different than Canadian schools. It’s much more competitive. I’m not sure the Canadian schools even offer scholarships.”What may be even more unusual than the players leaving their home countries is the fact that scouts can find foreign players in the first place. “[Scouting]’s mainly through club soccer and Olympic development,” Lee said. “In general, we’ve got kids ID’d by the time they’re freshmen in high school. Very rarely do you find them through their high schools.”Lee said international students tend to talk to other soccer players in comparable situation, and sometimes that can have a great influence in creating an international pipeline to a school.”I would assume when she decided she wanted to leave UAB, she was talking to her national teammates about who was where and if they liked it,” Lee said. “A lot of it has to do with if they feel like they’re getting something good out of it, and they’ll just talk it up to their buddies.”Boudreau knew LSU was the right fit during her initial college visits.”I went to other schools too. But this school I just liked best,” Boudreau said. “The culture is way different. The Southern feel was way different than where I’m from.”She also liked the hot weather — a polar opposite from her native Canada — and hasn’t regretted her decision in the least bit.”It brings my independence out,” Boudreau said. “It was hard at first just with the homesickness, but I adjusted really well.”Lee said scouting a star international player isn’t much different from scouting any other highly touted player.”We just try and show them lots of attention and everything within the NCAA rules we’re allowed to [do],” Lee said. “We write them almost a letter a day. We keep in constant contact. Once the kid visits LSU they are going to choose us over just about any other place in the country more often than not.”—-Contact Rowan Kavner at [email protected]